What was the status (class) of your dad before the October revolution? What were the contents of the messages he sent to people on the outside?

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ATC checking in. I was 4 months into my training at Heathrow as a young trainee ATC when I walked back upstairs from a break and was greeted to the sight of the BAW 777 coming over the fence and crashing. I probably had the best view of anyone of your near death experience! Up in the tower at first we thought the pilot was being a smart arse and trying to do a short landing to come off at one of the early exits, then it dawned on the controller in charge of that runway that shit was about to get real. There’s a good YouTube video of the ATC tape of my former colleague doing a fantastic job of co-ordinating the emergency. In it you will even hear the pilot calling the mayday and uses the incorrect call sign, he used the call sign BA use in their simulator when they PRACTICE emergencies, so they literally went into “auto pilot” mode.

It actually was a blessing that the plane landed short of the runway and in the grass, which was soft from the perpetual English rain, as it’s believed the runway surface may have caused a fire on impact. Having low amounts of jet fuel left in the tanks after a long flight also probably decreased the likelihood of fire.

10 years later, I have never seen anything like it in my career as an ATC, and I don’t wish to. The whole tower staff on duty were deeply affected for days afterwards but everyone involved from ATC, pilots, crew, ground staff, emergency services did an amazing job and turned a potential disaster into a Very British Plane Crash which caused some minor disruption, some grumbling about delays, and was mostly forgotten by the media in a matter of days.

How did it affect you afterwards? I see your sense of humour is still intact but did you have any PTSD or similar? I’m sure I’m not alone as an ATC/Pilot that has dreams about crashes or emergencies, some of which are based on my memories of your crash.

I haven't tried that. That is actually really interesting. As for breaking down the grease hoods, I luckily have not had to do that and I know how tedious and annoying it is. It is one of those tasks people hot potato between each other lol.

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My father was a photographer which would be middle class. The messages he sent to his parents were about his wife and children - the usual stuff discussed between parents and children. He was never involved in politics which meant that he was not a member of the Communist Party.

I think it was the spiritual crisis caused by discrepancy between the rosy propaganda and totalitarian reality that made the Soviet people lose faith in the system. I think there is a lesson in this for us.

Hi Anatole, thanks for taking the time to do this AMA. What would you say surprised you most about American culture when you came here, vs. what you had heard while you were in the USSR?

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What freaks me out about a crash landing is being trapped in a burning aircraft by passengers gathering their luggage. What was your reaction to other passenger's instincts to gather luggage rather than self survival?

Well there was this one day I was working cashier and thus couple came up to order. It was this burly tall white dude and his wife. She honestly looked angry from the moment she came into the store.So he asks for a king meal, so I ask if he wanted a rodeo king or a bacon king , to which she replies "oh no you got it ALL WRONG we want a king Jr meal." In a super rude way.And I'm just like okaay.the rest of the order was fine except for when I took their money and gave back the change and receipt. She asks if she can get her drink cups and a kindly ask her how many she needed.

This bitch said"YOU'RE THE EMPLOYEE"and throws her change and receipt into my face.Like, hard. And that shit hurt. I Basically just walked away and my manager came around to see what was up.

Somehow it was my fault for "being disrespectful" or some shit. I later found out this bitch wanted a FULL refund and too keep her food because one of the sandwiches did not have enough mayo. Fuck that shit.

Bottom line is fast food workers get both no respect from customer's and little respect from managers. I have not quit tho because money is fun.

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The Soviet propaganda painted the United States as an almost fascist country where everyone was being exploited by the capitalists and wished they lived in a Communist country. One couldn't read Western newspapers or books and did not have any information about real life in the West. The fact that no information was available from the West did not give us an opportunity to compare the two systems. I did not believe them and, having studied in West Germany after fleeing the Soviet Union, already knew what democracy was all about.

How prevalent was petty theft in day to day life growing up within the Soviet Union. Not necessarily stealing from each other, but trying to steal from the regime? Did people often steal from each other, or was there more of a group mentality, of we're all in this together? Was there an element of needing to steal to survive, or live in otherwise unbearable conditions? Any information or perspectives you could give on the world of petty crimes would be interesting to me.

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How were you reunited with all of your luggage? Did the airline gather it all up and put it on the carousel like normal? Was there much damage to passengers luggage?

It depends on how you define "petty crimes". During the collectivization of farmers, theft from the collective farm of a handful of grain stalks needed for survival was considered a crime punishable by years of imprisonment. People stole because there were shortages of everything and among the population, stealing from the government was not viewed as a real crime. In general, petty crime was common.

Edit: People had to remove windshield wipers when they parked their cars for fear of them being stolen.

To be fair I actually got my friends luggage first but her clothes don't fit me so I swapped back.

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I used to work at bk over a decade ago but I had a customer ask for everything heavy on a double whopper. That shit I kid you not had everything piled on and extra extra mayo it needed two wrappers to fold that shit! I still remember it to this day because that was crazy. I was an employee and we'd close with a laid back manager. Me an another employee counted inventory because manager got lazy so we miscounted about 8-10 Hershey pies and took them home! Lol ah the good ole days!!

When they ask for something and then change their mind AFTER I ring them up. I literally have to get a manager to refund the order and start ALL over. It just slows everything down and is easily avoidable. But then again, almost everything about BK boils my blood...

Lmao management is really heartless.They don't give a fuck about you or your feelings.

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According to rumors, Stalin was assassinated by Lavrenty Beria who arranged for a larger than normal dose of blood thinning medication be given to him. Beria felt his life was threatened when Stalin was preparing another purge of the leadership.

I am not an expert in matters of the war.

As for the book question, my new book "A Brief History of Communism" analyzes life in Communist Russia.

The fact that he is approved by 80% of the Russian population shows that because Russia never had a real democracy, an autocratic government is acceptable to a majority there and so is Putin's objective of restoring military power and influence in the world.

Russia has never survived under a “democracy.” Without an authoritarian leader like Vladimir Putin, Russia would cease to exist and would split into several impoverished republics. It’s a nation that needs strong federal unified rule.

I’ve studied this subject for several years and I’ve written multiple papers about it. It’s evident in Russia’s history. The stark demographic and cultural differences that exist among her people makes the principle of “democracy” nearly impossible to implement and sustain.

It really depends on who is working there more than the actual store.So I would say the airport bks are usually the best because they have the best staff.

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I am in the middle of the road between the republicans and democrats.

We should differentiate between Communism and Socialism. Bernie Sanders is not a Communist. I think he would like to see a system more like what they have in Sweden, which is a monolithic society and would not work here.

Honestly, it depends on alot of things.You will never beat the convenience of bk, but with good enough branding and high quality service, u can have longevity. Also, you would not want to just steal their employees, with higher quality pay, you can up the requirements for employees and get the best workers.

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Stalin's regime caused the death of over 24,000,000 of his citizens. They killed my father and many others just for writing a letter to their family abroad. They starved millions of people during artificially created famines in order to force farmers into collective farms.

Considering that the same system in other countries like China, Cuba, and Cambodia led to the same results, it shows that it was the system that is incompatible with human nature. It couldn't be implemented in any other way. Powerful people in other ideologies are also corrupt and yet they did not murder millions of their own citizens.

What is your opinion on educated people in America who openly support communism, as well as dictators and their dictatorship?

As the son of a Cuban whose family was prosecuted and killed in Cuba, it infuriates me to hear people who praise those like Castro. So many people see only what they want to see.

Edit: after some responses and questions I went to talk to my father about the family history. Turns out my direct family (grandfather, pregnant grandmother) left Cuba because my grandfather, a doctor, helped both Batista's men and the men they were fighting during a shootout. Batista put 500,000$ on my grandfather's head for aiding the others. They also disagreed with Batista and later Castro, who ran the rest of my family out of Cuba.

My father said to relay a few things, first that Batista was bad, no denying that, but Castro was worse in his opinion. Batista was a murderer, but he mostly just messed with the political class and left the rest alone if they didn't interfere with the money. Castro messed with everyone, and ran the country into the ground.

My grandfather, Maximo/Luly Viera, was smuggled out, while his cousin Mingolo was not. Mingolo was on Batista's bad side, so he was caught, shot 150 times, and thrown on his mother's front porch.

Edit 2: My father said to post, if communism was so good they wouldn't need fences and walls and machine guns to keep people in.

Honestly, at our bk the floors behind the counter are disgusting, and I have REGULARLY seen people including managers drop fries,buns, lettuce on the floor and still use it. Otherwise things are pretty typical since everything is prepackaged.

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I think these people are not sufficiently educated because schools are not doing a good job teaching history. I wish history teachers themselves knew more about what went on. Those who don't know the past are liable to repeat it.

Thank you for making yourself available for an AMA. I stumbled late onto your AMA last year and commented on how influential your book was to me while I was in high school. Your grandson Miles came across my message on that thread and reached out to me last week that you'll be doing an AMA and again reached out earlier today to let me know it was up - thank you, Miles! This actually reminded me the book would be a great gift for my sister who is interested in studying 20th century history - I found the last hardcopy on amazon at the moment :D

I have a few questions if you are able to answer:

Are you still speaking at local schools on life in the USSR? Do you have comments from speaking with students/teachers on your life? You comment on how education does not sufficiently emphasize lessons from history, and I think hearing and seeing someone speak, or writing personal accounts, will likely always be a lesson that finds more connection than watching an aged documentary or reading from a dry school textbook.

Apart from writing, do you have other hobbies?

Do you think communist or other harsh political ideologies would be harder or easier to find root today compared to the early 20th century?

Thank you - best of luck to you and your family in your business and personal endeavors!

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Did you try to put on the oxygen masks? or did you just bs right out of there?

A burger king gift card! Don't bring it to my store though.I don't want to deal with that shit.

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Thank you for your message.

I am no longer speaking in schools, but I am still being interviewed occasionally in local libraries. I found that most history teachers I met are not knowledgable about Communism and therefore their students are not familiar with it.

As for hobbies, I try to follow scientific developments in all areas.

I think that with jobs being lost to automation and artificial intelligence it may become easier in the future for these ideologies to take root.

Since Trotsky wrote, "The Red Terror is a weapon used against a class that, despite being doomed to destruction, does not wish to perish," I do not think that his rule would be any more benevolent than Lenin's.

We walked across the grass to a guy who was gathering up passengers without getting close himself. From there we were bussed to the terminal and had to chat with the police as they were immediately investigating it.

While I was chatting with them ("Are you okay?", "Yup", "Seriously?!") the border force were determining if we had the right to enter the country. I was lucky as I had my passport in my pocket. Those who didn't (like my friend) were asked questions to determine if they were actually resident in the UK or had permission to enter.

After that we were moved to the 1st class lounge to be held there till we were ready to go. Didn't stay long as they had cleared the alcohol away and turned all the TVs off.

After my friend and I met back up we got out and met up with her parents who had come to collect us and while walking back to their car a journalist for the BBC pounced on us in the car park for an interview.

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What an eventful day. Shame the booze went(probably for the better now that I think of it).

Business class. They reserve 1st class compensation for when they run out of tea on a British Airways flight.

And yes she loved the holidays. Sadly it gave her a taste for expansive hotels.

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I've never understood it, I've always thought it would be a good deal to lose my luggage. In a crash. It's just a bag full of sudoku and twizzlers. But when I go to file the claim, suddenly my $500 designer bag was full of cash, new laptop, cell phone, and lots of expensive jewelry.

As I recall from the news reports it had been a totally normal flight right up until the last few seconds. 1. When did you realize that something had gone wrong? 2. Describe the impact and the first few seconds following. Were people more stunned or was there a sense of panic?

There was some sense of concern. I think if you could see out a window you would have had a much better idea what was happening.

There were some people crying once we got off the plane and there were the people who stopped to get their hand luggage and a few people shouting at the crew.

The cabin crew was fantastic they got us all off quickly and safely.

Q:

Wow. Just read the article. It seems like a the problem wasn't apparent until the very end of the flight. Did the crew have time to tell the passengers anything? Did you know the plane was going in for a hard landing before it happened?

Another question I had for any pilots or anyone with knowledge about aircraft: how would water get into the fuel lines? Isn't water a contaminant in a fuel system?

We didn't even get a call to brace. I remember looking out the window (across 3 seats because I was in the middle block) thinking we were coming down a little steep. I also heard a motor adjusting something which could have been either the flaps or landing gear as the pilot was doing his best to get maximum glide time.

The sad truth is I thought we'd come down a bit hard and then gone off the side of the runway. It wasn't until we got the call to evacuate and I went down the slide to be treated to the view of our undercarriage in the distance and half an engine leaking fluid that I realised just how bad it was.

I was sitting 7 or so rows back from the wing exit and I was the second person down the slide.

In the distance there was a man in a high vis jacket waving for us to head that way so off I set. I was also motivated by the smoker who on getting out of the plane and standing next to the engine decided that then was the time to light up.

10 long years ago by phone was a Nokia brick that would have cost me a fortune to use overseas. That was sitting safely at home.

What's more likely was the terrible fruit machine game I was playing on the in flight entertainment that kept paying out so much I had already overflowed from the credit display and I was trying to see if I could wrap an integer value.

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That was sitting safely at home.

Let's be real, it doesn't matter where a Nokia phone is sitting, it's always safe.

All terrible puns aside it was at times below -25C. At one point I thought the hotel bathroom floor had underfloor heating actually my feet were just so cold the tiles felt warm.

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Before urbanization and all that harbin used to get a lot colder in the winter. My dad said when he was a kid it would once in a while hit -40. If you're peeing outside you would have to hit you pee with a stick just so it doesn't freeze while you're going at it. I spent a few years of my childhood in harbin. Really interesting place with a lot of Russian architecture. Too damn cold though.

It was so cold that I didn't spend much time outside. I think it made it to -30C but my thermometer failed at -25. Really once it's that cold you stop caring.

I went to a dumpling restaurant to get warm food and not speaking Chinese they brought me a hand translated menu that they had laminated. Unfortunately it was in Russian so I guessed what to tick on it and got a selection of cold cuts.

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Did you and the other affected persons got compensation from the air company?

I was asked to be a witness for Boeing though it never went that far that they needed me.

I was perfectly happy with the compensation I received and while sure a big pile of money would have been nice I genuinely couldn't claim that it had such an effect on me that I would require that much money.

I wish. With me frequent flyer card I'm sure it appears whenever I check in. I once got bumped to business on a flight to Texas which was great I was sitting there watching The Revenant and realised I had a massive grin on my face while Leo was being eaten by a bear. Must have been a little off putting for anyone walking past.

Firstly this is going to sound weird but this is one of my “favourite” crashes. I for one reason or another enjoy reading up on plane crashes and I’ve always enjoyed the story of this one. Anyway my question is, what was your first thought after impact? Did you initially sense something was wrong or was there a sort of “holy shit we just crashed” moment?

Very glad you made it through that traumatic experience. Did it go in slow-mo for you crashing? How fast did it feel? When you were falling, what were your thoughts when all of this was going on when you were going down? Are you more aware and safe how when you travel to fly? And lastly, did you see anyone overly panic or pass out through being scared or panic? Thanks.

For this one I have to assume it was about as gentle as it can be and still be a crash landing. I was sitting and wearing my seat belt. The most pain was from my hand being flung forwards into the seat in front.

Yes it was all put in a taxi and sent back a few days later. They mixed my friends and my bags up so I did wonder where the lace underwear and bras had come from for a few minutes before my brain caught up.

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What was your first distinction that made you realise something was wrong?

No I never did. The pilot did run a blog for a while and I sent him and email thanking him but never got a reply back. At the time all the media outlets were asking me to hail him as a hero and I thanked him but at that point didn't know what he did to save us all.